Last summer, when most students who just finished their freshman year in high school were working at the beach or relaxing, Juliana Shouldis '21 was working on understanding the formation and stability of soap films. Juliana worked in the laboratory of Dr. Paul Angiolillo, professor of physics at Saint Joseph’s University. Dr. Angiolillo is a condensed matter physicist who works primarily in the area of organic electronic materials. Soap films were something that fascinated him for quite some time, and all that was needed was the right student to initiate the project. Kathleen Hennessy, Juliana’s teacher in Honors Concepts of Physics, brokered the connection between Juliana and Dr. Angiolillo. From there, it was merely a matter of resourcefulness and commitment on Juliana’s part to undertake the project.
Understanding the stability of soap films is an unsolved problem in physics, and one that is being studied by several groups of scientists. Juliana was exposed to all the facets of being involved in a real research project: reading the scientific literature, performing the experiments, and analyzing the data. Juliana also was exposed to the tedium of taking repetitive long measurements, and to the surprises that sometimes arise – getting results that are shocking yet incredibly interesting, but not readily explained. Her work will initiate a new research direction in Dr. Angiolillo’s lab, and will ultimately be published in a scientific journal.
Julianna's research is important because soap films, as well as other liquid films, are ubiquitous and occur over a wide range of phenomena. Their applications to scientific fields are numerous. They are central to various areas of geophysics, biophysics, and engineering. In geology, the behavior of lava flows or the dynamics of continental ice sheets is very similar to soap flowing in a soap film. In biophysics, cell membranes, the linings of mammalian lungs, and tear films in the eye can be explained, as well, by soap film physics. In astrophysics and climate science, soap film flows have long been used to study two-dimensional turbulence in phenomena which include flows in hurricanes, typhoons, and the great red spot of Jupiter. In engineering, thin films serve in heat and mass transfer processes to protect surfaces, and applications arise in paints, adhesives, and membranes.
